It's Just Magic
by Ficti0nisreality
Summary: Harry is ecstatic to join the wizarding world and determined to become a great wizard. He won't let peoples Ideas on what people should and shouldn't be allowed to know stand in his way. Grey!Smart!Harry
1. Chapter 1

Harry Potter sat down in the empty compartment and immediately retrieved his first year charms book from his trunk. He could hardly believe it was all real. He had spent more than a few sleepless nights wondering if it was all a big joke his uncle was playing on him to punish him. But no, Diagon Alley, Platform Nine and Three-Quarters were very real and Harry was sure Hogwarts must be as well.

He redirected his attention to the charms book in his hands and continued his re-reading of the basic theory of charms. Harry had already read all of his school books, even if he had had anything else to do in the time between learning of the wizarding word and going to Hogwarts Harry knew he would have chosen to continue learning about magic. In just a few short weeks he had been beyond amazed by the contents of the books and thinking of the multitude of books he'd seen and skimmed through at Flourish and Blotts Harry knew he'd barely scratched the surface. He had never been so excited and eager to learn anything in his life. Harry knew there was no stopping himself. He had gotten a taste of magic and he'd be damned before he would let himself be a mediocre wizard , he would rise above all the rest and learn all of the magic he possibly could!

Harry was wrenched from his thoughts by what looked like the boy with the large family he'd seen outside the gateway to platform Nine and Three-Quarters. "Mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full." he asked "yeah, sure" Harfry responded. Harry returned his eyes to his book, he was so engrossed in his book he didn't realize he was being slightly rude.

Ron Weasley didn't know what to make of the boy in front of him, why would he be reading his school book before they were even at the castle? "So -er what house do you think you'll be in?" Ron asked still a little put off, but determined to make friends. "House?" asked Harry, he put his book down and looked Ron in the eye waiting for an answer. "Oh, there are four houses at Hogwarts: Gryfindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin." Harry noticed he said the last one like his uncle said freak and was intrigued and upset. "What do you have to do to decide which house you'll be in?" Harry asked, deciding to save his questions about Slytherin for later. "Well," Ron said "Gryffindor is the house of the brave and kind and good people. Ravenclaw is for smart people, and Hufflepuff is for nice people who work hard, or something. " "and Slytherin?" Harry asked determined to get as much information as he could despite the boys obvious bias. "Slytherins are evil" The redhead stated like it was a well known fact. Harry decided even if he asked why, he wouldn't get any accurate information because the boy was obviously biased, so he returned to his book and ignored the red head.

Afetr a few minutes Ron, who had still not introduced himself or gotten a name from the other boy became uncomfortable and left without saying a word.

Harry shrugged off the encounter and returned to his book. He wanted to make friends, but not with someone so obviously close minded. The redhead reminded him of his uncle's attitude to people he called freaks and taught Dudley to insult: Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Immigrants, Homosexuals, Atheists, Feminists, Hippies you name it Harry had heard a rant or twelve about each and every one of them and had long since decided his uncle was an idiot and discounted evertything he had ever said.

As the train rolled into the station Harry excitedly threw his book into his robe pocket and got off the train. He walked towards Hagrid witht he other first years and made his way to the boats. He ended up in a boat with a girl with bushy hair who was running her mouth a mile a minute with facts about the castle, a nervous looking boy clutching a toad, and a boy who gave an easy smile when he made eye contact with Harry. Harry ignored them all in favor of ogling the castle. He had learned about castles in primary, and he was very impressed with the sprawling fortress. It was the most beautiful thing Harry had ever seen, and his determination to earn his place as a great wizard tripled as he gazed across the lake at Hogwarts.

As his name was called the hall went silent for a moment before a torrent of wispers broke out. Harry had been expecting something like this after Hagrid had told him he was famous, and taking into consideration the people in the leaky cauldron's reaction. He had decided he would ignore his fame in favour of focusing on magic, that was after all what he was there for. He suspected he would be given peace once everyone else got settled in their studies. As the hat was put on his head he heard a small voice inside his head, "hmm, difficult", Harry's eyes widened under the hat, how was he hearing the hat in his head? "just think the words you want t say, boy" the strange voice said. "Okay, what's difficult sir?" Harry asked, he was starting to get nervous, no one else had taken this long to be sorted. "sorting you of course, you've a good mind and your determination to learn and curiosity rivals the founder of Ravenclaw house, but your also quite ambitious and can be very cunning when you need to be, traits that would do well in slytherin house." the hat in his head made a sound that sounded like an indecisive hmm and said,"I'll leave it up to you boy, Slytheirn or Ravenclaw?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"_I'll leave it up to you boy, Slytherin or Ravenclaw?" _

Harry was slightly taken aback by the question but quickly recovered and set to thinking. According to the hat's song, Ravenclaw was for people who gathered knowledge like his uncle ate food Harry thought that sounded like a nice house, he was determined to learn as much as he could about magic and the magical world so he could become a great wizard. But Slytherin was supposedly the house of the ambitious and cunning, traits Harry would need to become a great wizard, he wanted to be the best after all. His mind made up Harry thought one word to the hat, "Slytherin."

"SLYTHERIN!" The hat shouted after 5 full minutes on Harry's head. As Harry walked down to the Slytherin table on the far right he heard even more whispers than when his name was first called. From what he could hear people where very surprised he was going into Slytherin and had expected him to go into Gryffindor. Harry didn't really care, in fact he was pleased people had expected him to be a Gryffindor, if he started contradicting the image people already had of the 'Boy-Who-Lived' they might realize quicker that he was more than just a famous name.

Harry sat next to a boy with blonde hair at the end of the bench, he vaguely remembered a short conversation with him in the roe shop in Diagon Alley, Harry had gotten the idea he was trying to impress him and felt kind of bad for him. Harry would much rather do his own thing and ignore everyone else than try to imress people with a family name and a stuck up attitude. He decided he would give the boy a chance rather than judge him on the attitude he had shown in the shop.

"Hello, I'm Harry Potter," He said extending his hand "I think we met in Madam Malkins last month." "Yes, I remember" the blonde gave a slight pause, "I'm Draco Malfoy." "It seems people are rather shocked that 'The-Boy-Who-Lived was sorted into Slytherin." he said. "Yeah I was wondering about that, what's the deal with Slytherin, I talked to a boy on the train who said it was the 'evil' house." The other boy stuck up his nose and opened his mouth, Harry was sure the boy was about to give a practiced speech when he was suddenyl interrupted by a second year boy with light brown curly hair leaning over him and saying, "Slytherins are a bit different than the other houses, we make them uncomfortable because we dont always follow the rules...if you know what I mean." "No, I don't exactly know what you mean," said Harry. "Potter you're not that naïve are you?" Draco asked in a scornful tone of voice, he was probably upset at being interrupted. "Ignore him Potter, it's alright, I'm Julian Rosier by the way." "Pleased to meet you," Harry said "Yeah, yeah anyway I meant that Slytherins don't let things like ministry regulations hold us back." Harry's eyes went wide, "You mean Dark Magic?" "Yeah" said the twelve year old, "You got a problem with that?" "Well, Hagrid said Dark Magic is evil," Harry said a little scared of how the older boy would react. Harry was a little surprised when he laughed and said "well that's typical of most anyone in the other houses, they think it's illegal because it's evil" "But You-Know-Who used Dark Magic" Said Harry. "Well the Dark Lord was evil, he used magic to do bad things, that doesn't make the magic bad." That made sense to Harry so he thought he would ask another question which was bothering him. "What's the difference between Dark Magic and Regular Magic anyway?" "Well, Dark magic is typically stronger and has the potential to cause your enemies real harm. There are also entire fields of magic which have nothing to do with dueling that are considered dark like blood magic, rituals, self transfiguration and many others. The main reason they're considered Dark is because they are powerful and hard to control." Harry had about a million questions but was cut short when the Headmaster stood after Blaise Zabini was sorted to Slytherin and announced the beginning of the feast. Harry dug in immediately and thought about magic. It made sense what Julian was saying, but he'd have to do some research before he formed his own opinion. One thing he did know, he wasn't going to let ministry regulations get between him and magic. From what Julian said there was quite a lot of magic he was being denied acess to, and that really rubbed him the wrong way.

OIOIOIOIOIOIOIO

That night in the Slytherin common room Harry and the other first years were directed to a few couches in the corner and given a speech from the seventh year prefects. "Slytherin house is persecuted by the other three houses on a daily basis." The Red headed girl said to the gathered first years. "The ringleaders are usually Gryffindor's, they are all idiots of course but they can be dangerous because they're often stupid enough to attack. It's okay to use force if you are provoked or attacked, try not to use anything dark or show any dark magic at all to the rest of the school they all know Slytherins use it but flaunting it wont help anything." The girl finished her part and stepped back. The boy with long straight-black hair and tan skin stepped forward and said,"The most important thing you must keep in mind is house unity, we must remain united no matter what, like Celeste said the other houses are out to get us and if we don't defend our own we'll be torn apart. you should try to be on atleast friendly terms with everyone within the house, we try to keep infighting to a minimum but when it does happen you can bring it up with the prefects who if necessary can ref a duel. That's about it, you'll get your timetables in the morning, you must attend all your classes and turn in all assignments. Slytherin's hold up a higher standard academically thanthe other houses, except Ravenclaw of course. If you have trouble with your classes ask for help from an older student." He took a deep breath and said, "Okay. That's it, go to bed."

The first thing Harry did when he got to the first year dorm room was get in his bed, close the curtains, pull out his charms book and open to the levitation spell. His intention was to practice the levitation spell, now that he was at Hogwarts he was permitted to use magic. After re-reading the instructions harry pulled a small feather from his pillow and did the spell. "Wingardium Leviosa" he said as clearly and evenly as possible while doing the wand motions and focusing his will on making the feather float, like it said in the section on theory. To Harry's amazement the feather floated towards the ceiling and twirled around. Harry turned to his charms book again with a huge grin on his face and read on. _Once one has performed the charm succesfullyon a feather, they should attempt it with something heavier but still very light, such as a pillow. As the student learns to strengthen the charm they may progress to heavier objects. It is recommended they gain enough strength and control to hold a five pound weight up for three minutes before attempting the next charm, the color change charm._

Harry stopped reading and grabbed his pillow, he performed the charm a second time and Imagined the pillow floating up with all his will. The pillow twitched for a moment before rising a foot in the air, Harry held the charm for a minute before his hand started to ache, almost as if he'd been writing for a long time. He suddenly felt tired and dropped the charm without concious thought.

Harry was intrigued by the magic he could feel moving in his skin. It felt great, like he was breathing for the first time through a clogged airway he'd never known he'd had. The pain was explained by the book as being the small shock to a magical system caused by the first focused intentional use of magic that would jump start his power into growing exponentially and giving him greater control. Harry couldn't wait to try some more magic, but the book cautioned he ought to get a nights rest before casting again after his first time so he reluctantly allowed himself to slip to sleep while skimming his potions text.

Author's note:Leave reviews and tell me what to do! I'll do it(maybe)!


	3. Chapter 3

Harry rolled out of bed at six thirty in the morning and made his way to the library with a giddy look on his face. He was the only one there when he arrived so he immediately set to work. He only had another twenty minutes before he should go to breakfast so he rushed to the section on beginners magic and grabbed a few texts that caught his eye and he thought might be useful for supplementing his textbooks. _The Complete Beginners Guide to charms _ was a tome of atleast eight hundred pages from the looks of it and from a quick glance at the table of contents Harry could tell it went into great detail and covered a wide array of topics in charms. The next book he got was _Jinxes, Hexes and Curses for the Beginner_ this was a slim book with begginers offensive spells; Harry thought they all seemed to be a little harmless, none of them would do very much damage and could be reversed with magic easily according to the book. He shrugged and moved on witht he two books in hand. The last book he picked up was one he'd seen in Flourish and Blott's in Diagon Alley, _The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts_ was a history book that Harry thought seemed relevant and modern unlike his history textbook which was about conflicts centuries past. He made his way to the front with his three books just as madame Pince came in, he politely asked her if he could borrow the books and she wrote down their names and his on her ledger before shooing him out to go to breakfast. Harry put the books in his satchel with his textbooks and made his way to the Great Hall. There were still very few people in the Halls at seven o'clock so Harry got to the Great Hall without having to talk to anyone. He went to the Slytherin table and sat at the end. He was one of only twelve people there, none of them first years. As he settled down to begin reading _The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts_ while eating some toast harry felt someone plop down on the bench next to him. He looked up and saw the second year from last night, Julian Rosier, looking at him with a slight smile on his face. Harry noticed he had bags under his eyes the size of Aunt Marge and wondered if the boy had trouble sleeping. "Good morning," he said cheerfully. "Good morning," Harry replied with a small smile. "What're you reading there?" he asked. Harry held up the cover of the book for him to see and he scoffed. "You shouldn't read that trash, it's disgustingly biased." he stated. "What do you mean?" asked Harry a somewhat shocked by the outbust so early in the morning. "Well, books like that always lump the dark arts in with evil people. They make the age old assumption that anything used by an evil person is inherently evil, which is completely untrue. Dark Magic is more powerful magic that can be used for Good or Evil but is typically shunned by the 'Light' side and used excessively by the 'Dark'." He said. Harry scrunched his nose and asked, "And I assume we won't learn any dark magic in Hogwarts because of this?" he asked. "Right on," Said Julian. "They don't teach it in class, and there isn't much in the Hogwarts library outside of the restricted section, but if you know who to ask you could get your hands on some beginners books." he said in a low voice as more people were begging to file into the hall. Harry could tell Julian was uncomfortable talking about Dark magic so openly even though he gave off a nonchalant air. He didn't have anything to worry about, because Harry would be damned before he let his magic be restricted and confined. "Would you help me?" Harry asked quitely. Julian Grinned and nodded, I can get you some books from a friend of mine, he's in Ravenclaw and has just about every kind of restricted book on the listhidden in an expanding trunk." "Thanks," Harry said, "I really appreciate it." "Don't sweat it," Julian said, still grinning, I'm fighting ignorance and your the only first year who doesn't seem like a prat." Harry grinned and turned back to his toast, but put _The Rise and Fall of the Dark arts _in his bag so he could talk to Julian. Five minutes later professor Snape was sweeping dwn the table handing out timetables. When he got to Harry his sneer turned into somewhat of a glare, but he didn't say anything. Harry mentally shrugged and looked at his timetable. His first class would be charms. Harry was pleased, he had enjoyed reading his charms book the most over the summer and was excited to stuff as many charms into his brain as he could.

Harry finished his toast and had some tea while he continued to chat with Julian. "What electives will you be taking next year?" he asked curiously. Julian tilted his head, "Well, I'm definately taking Arithmancy, but I'm undecided between Ancient Runes and Muggle studies." Harry took another sip of tea and asked, "Well, why do you want to take Ancient Runes and why do you want to take Muggle Studies?" "I want to take Ancient Runes because they are used in powerful warding spells and also rituals, but those are illegal and I would never think of trying anything illegal." He said with a wink. Harry giggled and motioned for him to go on. "And I want to take muggle studies because there are Billions of Muggles and only a few hundred thousand wizards, so it would only make sense to learn about them." Harry thought that made sense but just shrugged and asked about Arithmancy. "Arithmancy is the study of how magic is affected by wand movements, words, intent and other such things. You spend third, fourth and fifth year in the most boring class ever nd then it becomes the most interesting in sixth and seventh when you are allowed to start creating spells." Harry furrowed his brow in thought, that sounded very useful, he mentally added arithmancy to his mental list of subjects to read about.

Breakfast came to an end and Harry followed the other first year slytherins to the charms classroom. Apparently their charms lessons were held with the Gryffindors. Draco Malfoy made a comment about Weasley's robes as everyone filed in. It looked to Harry like Draco was trying to make it apparent to everyone he was wealthy, it seemed like one of the only things he was confident talking about. They taught about bullies psychology in primary in an attempt to diminsih bullying, it didn't do much good but Harry had been very interested in the subject. Harry twisted his lip in thought, the boy must have some real issues if he has to resort to such petty insults to make himself feel better. He probably wasn't very confident in himself, perhaps his parents put a lot of pressure on him? Harry would observe and see what he could find out. He was only interested because he felt a sliver of pity for the blonde, he would never take his focus away from his magical studies to waste time with drama. When the little charms master stepped up to the podium Harry's attention was immediately on him.

One hour later Harry walked out of the charms classroom feeling somewhat put out. Apparently no one else had even tried the spell to levitate objects so they had spent the whole class learning that. The only other person who had seemed to remotely know what the were doing had been an annoing gryffindor girl. Harry had managed the charm on the first try to Flitwick's delight. Harry had been dissapointed in the slow pace they had gone through the charms theory, surely it wasn't that hard to understand? Harry shook his head and decided he would jsut have to learn on his own.

His next class was Transfiguration. Harry had enjoyed reading about this subject but thought it seemed a little esoteric to be a core class. He hadn't minded though, it was truly fascinating. Harry sat down in a desk toward the front and said hello to the ravenclaw to his left. The boy introduced himself as Terry Boot and they exchanged stories about the classes they had just been in. Terry had just gotten out of potions and he said Professor Snape was terrifying. harry told him about charms and that it was interesting but it moved incredibly slow. "I'm sure it'll pick up as the year moves on." Terry said reasuringly. "Yeah I hope." harry replied. A second later the cat on professor McGonogall's desk morphed into the professor to the classes amazement. Harry gaped, and then he grinned he was now even more excited about transfiguration than he'd been at the start of class. McGonogall got right into things. She lectured on the spell to turn a small piece of wood into a needle for twenty minutes. She gave the information new life in Harry's mind that the textbook had lacked. While he understood the theory, McGonogalls lecture made it make so much mroe sense. He excitedly grabbed a match from the bin floating around th class when her lecture was finished. He took a deep breath and focused on the match, he said the spell and willed the match to become a needle. He could see it in his mind, the match changing from wood to metal and he felt his magic moving throguh him. The match turned into a sharp needle right before his eyes. McGonogall had noticed his immediate success and walked over with an approving look on her face. "Good job , ten points to Slytherin." Harry smiled and thanked the professor, she told him practice the spell a few more times and then move onto the counter spell. The class ended and Harry was pleased. Although he had gotten the transfiguration fairly quickly, Proffessor McGonogall had allowed him to move onto the next speel once he'd mastered the match to needle transfiguration. His classes done for the day, Harry made his way to the Library. He intended to find more information on the Dark arts. While Julian seemed to be in the middle ground between the Dark and Light Harry wanted a completely unbiased book to read up on the subject. So he made his way over to a section in the very back of the Library entitled _The Dark Arts_. Just by looking at the books Harry could tell he wouldn't find a single spell in them. They were all new looking books, with titles like _The evil of Dark Magic _and _How to Tell if Someone is a Dark Wizard. _Harry skimmed the titles until he came to a book called _What is Dark Magic? And Other Questions for the Light Wizard. _Harry picked it off the shelf and made his way to the tables in a secluded corner of the library. He opened to the first page and began to read. Half an hour later Harry put down the book in frustration. The book was constantly going on about how dark magic was evil, and corrupted people but it never explained _how._ Harry angrily put the book back on it's shelf and went to find Julian. He found him in the common room reading in a reclining chair by himself. Harry walked over to him, "Hello Juian" Harry said. Julian flinched and looked up. "Oh, hey Harry." He said. Harry didn't feel like beating around the bush so he sat down across from him and got straight into what he wanted to talk about. "Listen, I was just in the Library and the books on," he looked around for any eavesdroppers and turned to Julian "The books on you-know-what, are terrible. They don't explain a thing just say it's evil in so many words." Julian smiled wistfully, "What did I tell you? It's all propoganda." he said. "Yeah, anyway, do you think I could get one of those books you talked about?" Julians smile turned serious in a second. "Listen Potter, I give you access to these books you have to be responsible with them. That means don't let anyone see them, don't talk about them, and if soneone ever finds out you take the fall. Say you owl ordered it from Knockturn alley or something but if you implicate me I'll be fucked because I've got a lot more than a few beginners books on Dark magic and they'll definately search me." Harry nodded seriously and said, "You can trust me." Julian smiled and reached over to pat his shoulder. "Okay, the guy pretty much lives in the Library so we won't have much trouble finding him. You want to go now?" Julian said, suddenly back to his casual attitude. "Yes please," Harry replied instantly, sounding a little too eager even to his own ears. Julian just lauged and sttod up to leave.

**Author's Note:** Please review! I think this chapter is somewhat smoother than the others and the story is moving along to the right tune.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry stepepd into the Library behind Julian. They walked over to a skinny ravenclaw boy with dull blonde hair down to below his shoulder, sitting at a table by himself that was piled with notes and books. He was reading the thickest book Harry had ever seen and seemed entirely engrossed. Julian stepped over to him and snapped his fingers under the boy's nose. He nearly fell out of his chair but recovered quickly and to glared at Julian.

"Hey DeRossi, can I get a book?" Julian said. The other boy sighed and wordlessly pulled out a shrunken trunk from his robe pocket.

"Here bring it back in twenty minutes. you already have three books so you better not take more than one." he said.

"It's not for me, It's for Harry here." said Julian grinning. The other boy, DeRossi looked at Harry then did a double take. "Are you fucking serious Julian?" he asked quietly. "Yup, listen don't worry, he's not like the others, I've taken him on as a sort of apprentice." Julian said. DeRossi scoffed,

"whatever as long as he's trustworthy he can have a few books." DeRossi said. "Righto! let's go Harry!" Julian said before walking out of the library. Harry scurried behind him, they walked for five minutes into an isolated part of the castle. They walked in and Julian set the trunk on the floor. He tapped his wand on it and said _finite incantatem_. Harry watched the trunk go from the size of a matchboz to a full sized trunk before his eyes. He'd have to learn that charm for sure. Julian looked at Harry grinning.

"You sure you want to get into this Harry? This is illegal you know." Harry just stared at him and nodded his head.

"Good" said Julian. He opened the trunk and started rummaging around he pulled out two worn books with black covers and set them on the floor. "These two are for you," Julian said "I'll take the trunk back to DeRossi, come to me if you have any questions and don't let the books be seen by anyone." Harry nodded and left for the dungeons. Safely hidden in his bed with the curtains drawn Harry opened the first of the two almost identical books. _Curses for Battle_ was engrossing, Harry read it for a full six hours and missed dinner without realizing. By the time curfew rolled around Harry finished the book. He had read four hundred pages of magical theory involving dark magic harry picked up the second book, which he now realized was the book of spells that accompanied the book on theory. He flipped to the first page and started to read about the infinite itching curse. Ten minutes later Harry looked up from the book and pointed his wand towards his pillow. He tried to imagine the feeling of an itch and magnify it in his head then project it into his magic as he said "Scabiem."

Harry felt the magic course through his arm and out his wand. It was like the first time he'd cast the levitation charm but so much better. He felt like he'd just had an adrenaline rush cranked to the max. Harry giggled, was this what they were being kept from in this school? This feeling was the best thing Harry had ever felt in his life, he couldn't understand why people would want to keep it hidden. He could feel the difference in the Dark magic from the light magic he learned in class today, but it didn't feel malicious like the library books described it just felt different. Harry looked at the pillow which had taken his curse, it didn't look very different aside from a little crinkling in the middle where the curse had hit. Harry knew he'd cast the curse right though, he could feel it. He grinned and turned back to his book. He was going to have a long night. Harry spent the next week outperforming all of the other first years with little effort and obsessively learning the spells in the dark magic spell book. He had finally hit the wall were it wasn't so eay for him to get the spell. When he'd tried to use a stomch twisting curse he'd been unable to get it for several hours until he'd managed to get the trick. He had to bring himself to want to inflict pain on the target. He'd thought of his uncle and cast the curse. He imagined his uncle beating Harry and then Harry getting up and casting the spell on him. The spell had worked and tied all of the feathers in his pillow into a knot. Harry had been a little skeptical of this spell, but figured if he was ever in a real fight with an experienced wizard the spells they learned in defense would do him no good. After that he had gotten every spell in the book and went to ask Julian for a new one. When he told Julian he needed a new book he seemed a little surprised but then just chuckled and took him to see DeRossi. This time he gave him a spell book aswell as a book on beginners rituals. Harry thanked him and went off to his first potions class of the term after putting the book in his trunk.

Harry sat down next to Blaise Zabini and took out his potions supplies. he sat quietly and waited for the proffessor. He banged in a minute later and strode to the front of the room.

"You are here to learn the subtle art and exact science of potion making. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses ... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach" (Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone) Snape said. "Potter" He yelled. "Tell me what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

"They are the same plant, sir." Harry said. Snape looked surprised for a moment, but then his composure was back in place.

"Very good, five points to Slytherin." He proceeded to ask the Gryffindors questions about the potions they would be learning about later in the year. Every time someone got it wrong, which was often, he would take points. Harry didn't feel remotely bad for them, they should have read thet textbook. He didn't even understand how they could have not read it, it was so fascinating.

As the class moved on Harry and Blaise brewed a perfect boil cure potion while listening to Professor Snape antagonise the Gryffindors. harry didn't have any love for the Gryffindors, over the last week he'd learned they were typically annoying and big headed. So he just watched and was mildly amused as Snape told off one boy for destroying his own cauldron. The class ended and Harry went to lunch with the other Slytherins. He sat next to Julian as usual.

"How was your first lesson with Snape?" He asked with a mischevious glimmer in his eyes.

"Brilliant," harry said. "his attitude towards Gryffindors is very funny. Serves them right, the bloody fools, I don't think a single one of them besides Granger had so much as cracked their potions book open." Harry said.

"Yes the Gryffindors are idiots, this is an established fact. Tell me what he did to them." He said with an exaggerated sadstic grin. Harry chuckled and told him about the poor Gryffindor who'd melted their cauldron.

**Author's Note:** Please review! Tell me what you think and were you want Harry to go in his magical endeavors.


	5. Chapter 5

Harry's first weekend at Hogwarts found him in his bed with the curtains drawn reading his book on rituals. He was reminded again and again how fantastic magic was by the sheer number of things one could accomplish with a ritual. Harry was currently engrossed in the description for a ritual which would make him need to sleep for only a few hours each month. Harry was very interested in trying it, as it would give him an extra eight hours of free time a day to learn magic. While the ritual would be painful for Harry the short term pain would be far outweighed by the long term gains. To complete the ritual, he had to have each of his four canine teeth pried out and placed in the middle of a chalk circle of runes. The blood from his mouth would be used to draw a single rune on his forehead and then a few words from him and he'd never sleep as much again. He would of course need an accomplice to help pull the teeth and draw the rune on his forehead. He was sure Julian would be willing to help. He gulped and thought of the pain he would experience. He thought it over some more. It couldn't be any more painful than the time he'd lost a tooth when his uncle pushed him down the stairs. He would willingly undergo that pain again to only need to sleep once a month. It would speed his progress up by miles! He made the decision then and there to go through ith the ritual. He walked down to the second year boys dorm and nocked. He walked in after a second and opened Julians bed curtains.

"Julian," he said. "Will you help me with something?"

"What kind of thing?" He asked. Harry tossed the ritual book onto his bed and opened it to the page with the sleepless soul ritual. Julian grinned.

"That's the first one I did too you know." he said.

"Really?" Harry asked, "and it works?"

"Oh yeah, only side affect is that I look like I don't get any sleep, but I feel fine 24/7 and only sleep on the first day of every month."

Harry grinned, "can we do it tonight?" he asked.

"Sure," Julian said, "I hope you can take a little pain though it will hurt like a bitch when we do it and then mild pain for another week while your teeth grow back."

"I can take it" Harry said.

"Okay, meet me in the common room at midnight."

"See you then," Harry said as he turned away.

That night in a secluded classroom Julian pried out Harry's canines one at a time. Harry let out a scream when they were pulled, but the ritual required the pain and Julian had put up silencing spells so no one heard and Harry took the pain as best he could. Julian took the teeth and set them in the rune circle. He then held out his hand to Harry. Harry looked at him and spat out a mouthful of blood into his hand. julian just smiled and drew the rune on his forehead. He then turned and let the remaining blood drip onto the teeth. He pulled out his wand and Harry mirrored his motions, Julian said "Dormire non in utero, habens de nocte" while pointing his wand at the circle.

Harry responded by raising his wand to his head and yelling "tolle eam et somnus meus dulcis mihi!" The circle lit up blue and the blood on Harry's forehead burned. Harry could feel the begginings of new canine teeth starting to poke from his gums and he wimpered in pain. Harry didn't feel much different, the only difference was the tiredness from the day was gone and he fel as if it were two o'clock rather than one in the morning. Harry wimpered again as his gums throbbed, Julian came over and helped him up.

"You did great," he said and smiled cheekily.

"So I won't need to sleep until one month from now?" Harry asked.

"that's correct."

Harry grinned, "Perfect," he said.

"Want to practice some spells together?" Harry asked with an eager grin.

"Sounds great!" Julian yelled. and they started showing off to eachother. Harry was impressed by Julians wide array of spells some of them could even be lethal. The strongest curse Harry knew was the dragon's breath spell. It conjured a fire that could only be put out with magic, water would have no affect on it. While this could be used to kill someone, harry mused and experienced opponent could get away from it before it burned them to death even if it hit them directly. On the other hand Julian would have killed the opponent easily if they were struck with the heart attack curse he had demonstrated. Harry resolved to learn at least a few deadly curses, his magical knowledge would be severely lacking otherwise and it was very likely he would need them someday.

After Harry and Julian finished their spell practice they plopped down on the floor to rest fo a bit. Harry looked to Julian, "can you give me a book with spells that can kill people?" Harry asked. Julians eyes widened but he just nodded his head.

"I suppose you're trustworthy enough now that you've performed a ritual. By the way if anyone finds out about this you'll be expelled." Harry blanched and Julian laughed at Harry's look of horror.

"Don't worry they dont have any effective way of finding out if you're being affected by dark magic and they haven't searched a students belongings since the 70's."

"Okay but still-" Harry was interrupted by Julian putting his hand up.

"Don't worry Harry there are atleast another dozen people in the school who practice dark magic. Half are ravenclaws, three slytherins including you and me , two gryffindors and a Hufflepuff."

"How do you know?" Harry asked.

"DeRossi has got a big mouth, and he's the only person in the school willing to loan books." Julian twisted his mouth, "You know there are probably a few more people I don't knwo about who just get books on their own."

"What would happen if I cursed someone using dark magic?" asked Harry.

"You'd be thrown out for sure, and as the 'boy-who-lived' the press would tear you apart." Julian said without hesitation. Harry frowned. The boy-who-lived image was still imprinted in people's minds even though he was in slytherin. He had been approached by countless people looking to be his friend because of his fame or to just question him to no end. It was getting very annoying. As he sat in silence next to his only friend in Hogwarts, Harry began to hatch a plan. A plan worthy of a slytherin, it would make people think twice before approaching him with their inane conversation and persistant questions. Harry looked at Julian, and Julian must have seen something in Harry's eyes because he grinned. Harry grinned back and started to laugh.

**Author's Note:**Review God Damnit!


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